On the Fence | Using Veteran’s Day to reconsider, appreciate

Ian Saxine Columnist

One of history’s most wasteful and unnecessary wars came to an end 87 years ago. World War I, in which neither side was fighting for any particularly lofty goal, pitted two alliances of European powers squabbling over colonial boundaries and the future borders of empires. Determined to stay aloof, the United States eventually felt compelled to enter the conflict because its own neutrality was not being respected by the combatants, particularly Germany. Goaded into fighting, America helped to bring the war to a bloody conclusion on Nov. 11, 1918. President Woodrow Wilson’s idealistic plan to make it “the war to end all wars” proved to be a failure. But since 1926, Veteran’s Day has been used to honor the sacrifices of America’s soldiers on behalf of peace.

World Wars I and II have also taught America the lesson that it cannot afford to ignore the world’s problems and that the U.S. military, at least for the time being, is a necessary tool in keeping the world safe. The United Nations provides a hope for a better tomorrow, when war will be unnecessary and the peaceful resolution and enforcement of disputes is possible. However, the UN today is only as strong as its ability to back up its decisions with force, and in 2005 that requires the American military.

I decided that this would be an appropriate time to point out the many positive contributions of America’s military to the world. Besides ending World War I, which stands out as one of the dumbest wars of all time, American soldiers helped win World War II. It also led the United Nations to keep South Korea from suffering the fate of North Korea and ending up as one of the poorest, most oppressive regimes in the world. The continued presence of American troops in South Korea has been instrumental in keeping North Korea from attacking anyone else, despite the occasional test scud missile they fire over Japan into the Pacific, presumably because Kim Jong Il is worried that the world may forget he is the craziest head of state today.

A dozen years after the Korean War, the United States attempted to do the same in Vietnam, with tragic results for everyone involved. Repeated small-scale involvement in Latin American affairs has also, for the most part,reflected poorly on America.

The American military is neither inherently good nor evil, but rather a tool for both, such as when it was used to take land away from Mexico in 1846 to 1848 and when it ended up being an army fighting to set other people free during the Civil War less than 20 years later. The oversimplified demonization of the U.S. military by many Vassar students is scarcely better, on an intellectual level, than the empty-headed brand of patriotism practiced by right-wingers.

Yes, the American military has committed some atrocities in Iraq, but it has also, for the most part, taken great pains to avoid committing war crimes. Most militaries around the world do not apologize, let alone pay compensation fees, to innocent civilians killed amidst the tragic confusion that is war. Rather than merely complaining about perceived U.S. “imperialism” in Iraq, a more socially responsible course of action for Vassar students would be to advocate for better employment of the U.S. Army against Islamist oppression, particularly in the Sudan.

America is one of the few countries in the world that does not have a compulsory military service requirement for its male citizens, and that is partly because so many Americans have volunteered through the generations when they were needed. For the most part, American soldiers have served their country in an effort to make true the lofty ideals upon which this country was built. No reasonable person can claim that America has fully achieved them yet, but no reasonable person can say that this country hasn’t been trying. If American soldiers have been instrumental in making a few international messes of their own, they have also been a vital part of America’s attempts to clean up somebody else’s.

The jury is still out on the situation in Iraq, but if that country is able to make a better future for itself, it will have the U.S. military to thank. The intelligent, and even moral, thing for us to do here at Vassar in 2005 is to work to ensure that the American military more consistently represents the as-yet imperfectly carried out ideals of this country, rather than to irrationally pigeon-hole America’s role in the world for the past century solely bad.

Rather than using Veteran’s Day to unabashedly present one-sided interpretations of the military, we would be better off to use this day of remembrance to offer our thanks to the men and women who served their country as best they could, and to take a measured reflection of the American military with an eye towards ensuring that it becomes, as this country should be, a more consistent force working for good in the world.